Kuro Kiba
by hana-akira
Summary: Kuro Kiba. Black Fang. Otherwise known as one Uchiha Obito who's somehow time traveled back to the time of the Clan Wars after he'd died, and one Uchiha Hikaku's friend. – —Time travel, AU, OOC, Obito&Hikaku, Implied?Tobirama/Obito, Drabble-ish, WIP
1. Chapter 1

Fandom: Naruto  
Title: Kuro Kiba  
Author: hana-akira AKA rurichi  
Character: Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Hikaku  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship  
Rating: 20+  
Warning: OOC, AU, implied mentions of an older man liking a younger man  
Prompt: Time travel. After dying, Obito is transported to the past through unknown means, and becomes friends with someone who's from his clan.  
Summary: Kuro Kiba. Black Fang. Otherwise known as one Uchiha Obito who's somehow time traveled back to the time of the Clan Wars after he'd died, and one Uchiha Hikaku's friend. – —Time travel, AU, OOC, Obito&Hikaku, Implied?Tobirama/Obito, Drabble-ish

A/N: I'm not particularly sure whether I'm going to allow Obito have the Sharingan or not. He may have an Uchiha body and blood, but he has Kakashi's eye.

"Character talking."  
'Character thinking.'

—

1. A Single Eye that Swam in Black

—

The eye that opened swam in black. It blinked, and before Obito knew it, his left eye, the dark, coal-colored eye that used to be Kakashi's, watered, but didn't quite cry. This is the first thing that Obito feels when he realizes he hadn't died being crushed by falling rocks. The next thing Obito realizes is that he could see—see, even though Kakashi's eye had been slashed, had been blinded, and that therefore he shouldn't be able to see. Wasn't supposed to see the blue, blue sky above him; the thin, white clouds that were like wisps of smoke without fire, the brightly lit sun hanging high. Wasn't supposed to be able to see the back of a man with the Uchiha Clan's symbol on his deep purple shirt, see the man's onyx-colored ponytail, or even the silver-stringed jewelry that dangled from the man's shoulders.

Obito could see when he wasn't supposed to. He could see, he could feel, and he was, without a doubt, alive. Alive when he should've been dead. Obito breathed deeply, smothering the panic that threatened to overtake him, and it was only then that he noticed that he was lying on his back surrounded by fields of lavender, its soothing fragrance wafting through the air.

That was also the same moment that the man standing before him decided to turn towards him.

The man was young, probably in his late teens or his early twenties. Now that Obito could see the man's face, he could see that the man was definitely an Uchiha—that recognizable eye color and the familiar shape of the man's face. Yet something niggled at the back of Obito's mind, as if to say, "You've seen this man before," even though Obito distinctly knew that he had never met the taller man before in his entire life.

"—ey. Hey, can you hear me? Are you alright?" the older man asked, concern and worry shown faintly on his face even as he tried to hide it. The man was above him, bent slightly down, almost hovering yet still keeping a distance as if he was afraid that Obito would suddenly lash out. Obito blinked momentarily, still disoriented from the fact that he was alive and could actually see (even if it was only from one eye), before he motioned for the man to move away. The man backed a little and straightened himself as Obito propped himself up into a sitting position.

"I'm… fine. But who in the world are you?" Obito responded, his mind still trying to figure out how he was in a field of lavender instead of the forest he had been in previously. He needed information, and the Uchiha that was in front of him was probably his only source. The man seemed to uncomfortably smiled (a sign that Obito took to mean that the man wasn't as confident as he portrayed himself to be) before he once again spoke.

"I'm Hikaku. Uchiha Hikaku. I found you here and bandaged the right side of your face. What's your name?"

Obito recognized that name, that face and those clothes. Had seen the man in the Clan Archives when he had once helped clean it when he was much younger. He knew who the man was, even if the man didn't know him. It explained everything and nothing at the same time, though. It explained why he felt some gauze carefully wrapped over his empty right eye socket, but it didn't explain whether he was in an after-life of some sort and that Hikaku just so happened to be his guide, or if he was stuck in some ninjutsu or genjutsu of some sort that somehow brought him back to the time of the Clan Wars. It didn't explain what Obito desperately wanted to know: why the man helped him when he didn't even know him, whether Kakashi and Rin were safe, if the mission to destroy Kannabi Bridge had been a success, if Konoha had won the war. The man's words didn't explain what Obito needed to know.

"Obito… just Obito." Obito finally managed to say, his head still reeling in the fact that he was personally meeting one of his dead relatives. A dead relative who didn't know who he was, which probably meant that this wasn't the after-life. Or maybe it was the after-life and his relative was just screwing around with him, but he didn't think Hikaku was the type of person to do that, judging by the expression on the man's face. The older Uchiha male seemed to genuinely care about him even if he kept a cool façade, the man's fingers twitching as if they wanted to check over whether he had any other injuries that needed to be taken care of.

Hikaku smiled again, this time more at ease, saying, "Obito… was it? Would you like to come with me? You seem to be a little lost, and I think I can help you out a little bit." He bent his knees a bit and stretched his right hand towards Obito, a gesture to show good will and to help the younger male up. Obito stared at the hand. He didn't really know what to think, or even what to do. On one hand, the man was offering free help, but on the other, the man was a complete stranger, even if Obito knew that the man was a relative of his. If the man didn't already know that they were family, he probably never will unless Obito himself told him. What if the man had an ulterior motive, a hidden agenda? Obito wasn't so foolish into thinking he could just accept anyone's help without some catch attached to it.

But he was lost. He didn't know where he was and didn't know how he could get back, if he could even get back at that. He was by himself, with only a limited amount of supplies, and could only survive for so long while at the same time trying to adjust to the sight perception he'd have to get used to now. So Obito did the only thing he could do: he took Hikaku's outstretched hand and hoped to hell that the instinct telling him that the other man was trustworthy, that he could be trusted, was as reliable as the time he pushed Kakashi out of the way of the falling rocks.


	2. Chapter 2

Fandom: Naruto  
Title: Kuro Kiba  
Author: hana-akira AKA rurichi  
Character: Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Hikaku  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship  
Rating: 20+  
Warning: OOC, AU, implied mentions of an older man liking a younger man  
Prompt: Time travel. After dying, Obito is transported to the past through unknown means, and becomes friends with someone who's from his clan.  
Summary: Kuro Kiba. Black Fang. Otherwise known as one Uchiha Obito who's somehow time traveled back to the time of the Clan Wars after he'd died, and one Uchiha Hikaku's friend. – —Time travel, AU, OOC, Obito&Hikaku, Implied?Tobirama/Obito, Drabble-ish, WIP

A/N: There will be use of honorifics such as –kun, -chan, and –san because the English translated manga uses them, too.

"Character talking."  
'Character thinking.'

—

2. That Familiar yet Unfamiliar Shape and Form

—

The first time Uchiha Hikaku meets Obito is in the lavender fields of Hinata Gesui at the borders of Hi no Kuni and when he can't stand, once again, the quarrels the members of his clan have with each other. They are arguing about what missions they should take, which clients are reliable resources of funds and materials, and ultimately, where they should go next if they are going anywhere in the first place. Whether they should accept the one request that involves them in being the enemy of the Senju again, or if they should accept the numerous other amounts of requests that don't involve the Senju at all but every other ninja clan. It is an age-old argument, one Hikaku has quickly grown tired of since in the end, it always ends up with about one-third of the clan accepting the mission involving the Senju while the rest takes care of all the other available missions.

It's not that he doesn't love his clan or that he hates his clan. It's just that sometimes everything is so tiresome that when the others argue with each other, Hikaku can't help but think the time spent disagreeing can be time spent on more useful activities such as foraging, information gathering, resting, cleaning, or even cooking. He can't help but think that if they have time to waste to talk to each other in loud, screeching noises that irritates just about everyone around them, they have time to train and get better at fighting.

(Not that he would ever tell off any of the others. They never learned no matter how many times they're told or shown and so Hikaku had long since stopped ever trying to get in between clan politics or in any verbal spars the others were so hyped about. They pointlessly clung to their pride, refusing to hear others' points of views or opinions, content with only staying in their own world even though they knew the people around them were all different and so had different thoughts and beliefs. Only his cousins Madara and Izuna seemed to actually think things through and contribute to the clan reasonably, truly working together as a team rather than haphazardly like so many of their other relatives did, but time will tell if the rest of the clan didn't get them killed first. It wouldn't be the first time the clan did something foolish like running their own relatives off simply because of a difference in opinion or because of bonds made outside of the clan.)

So it wasn't that out of the ordinary that Hikaku went out by himself on his so-called "training trips". That he spent weeks on end away from the clan basically traveling by himself and just himself around the borders of whatever country the clan decided to stay in for now, the only contact with his relatives essentially being half of the payment of any jobs he'd done or letters sent to the people in the clan he actually liked that were sent with the clan's messenger hawks. It was quite common, really, that Hikaku would suddenly have an "urge to explore and see new things" and that when he did, he went on a journey immediately so as to sate his desire right away, otherwise he would be unable to properly function on any task he was assigned to. If these "urges" seemed to eerily happen at the same time when several clan members got into verbal disputes, well, that's just a coincidence, wasn't it?

(He wasn't fooling any of the people in the clan that he liked, though. Which meant he didn't fool the Uchiha brothers, Izuna and Madara, or any of the children he interacted with. Probably didn't even fool the more considerate members of his clan, either, the ones who always seemed to know when to leave him alone and leave some onigiri out for him after a time-consuming mission. As long as he brought back souvenirs, though, such as the hand-held trinkets, interesting pieces of information, and new weapons, his "secret" was safe. Madara always called him out on it even as he showed his appreciation over the new swords, kama, and gunbai Hikaku made sure to bring back for the older Uchiha brother while the younger Uchiha brother, Izuna, simply smiled and took the tea leaves and sweets he asked for.)

The lavender fields of Hinata Gesui were a desolate place despite its calming and peaceful atmosphere. No one owned the land so anyone could pick some lavender and use it for themselves. The herb itself—while cheap since it could grow in abundance under the right amount of sun and in places with good drainage—had many uses and could be used for medicinal purposes as well as decorative. It stretched on for miles, a literal sea of purple, and would have been a wonderful place to stay… if it wasn't for the fact that if you stayed there too long, you'd want to stay there forever. Although it was only a rumor that a young woman or another vanished one time when gathering some of the lavender to be used to make a fragrance for some candles and soaps but never came back out of the place, Hikaku wasn't going to take his chances. Once he gathered a bundle of lavender and sealed it safely away in a scroll, he was hightailing right out of there. It might only be a rumor, but there had to be a shred of a truth to it if he was the only one in miles that set a foot in the area.

It was about then that he saw a young man's body that was on its back lying down on some lavender. A young man who was in obvious need of some medical attention. The entire right side of the young man's figure was heavily scarred, as if it had been crushed by rocks and never really quite recovered from such injuries. The right eye socket was sunken, most likely empty, and Hikaku did the best he could to bandage at least that for the young man who seemed to be familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. There wasn't much Hikaku could do—he wasn't a doctor or a healer and knew at best only first aid—but what he could, he did. And then the young man woke up and everything clicked into place.

He wants to say, _I know you. I know those cheeks and I know those eyebrows. I know that nose. I know the shape of your face and the form of your body. I know who you are. I _know_ you._ That black ink hair that spiked wildly in all directions; that smooth, pale face refined into familiar angles, and that welcoming smile that radiated warmth. The young man looked like an Uchiha: the color of skin that every member of the clan had, the hair style that some of his younger relatives wore, the kind of facial expression only a few of them were brave enough to show the rest of the world. But the eye was out of place. It looked like it belonged in someone else's left eye socket, on someone else's face.

Hikaku knows someone he shouldn't know and so there's only one thing he can do in this situation he's gotten himself in: he asks the young man to come with him. He's not stupid: he knows that it's dangerous to ask someone you don't even know—a complete stranger—to suddenly be your friend, to essentially be your companion and partner. It gives too many chances to be stabbed in the back, in the front, any time really when one's guard is let down, but it's better off this way.

It's better off this way, Hikaku reasons with himself. Better off than any other solution he can think of at the moment. Despite what people think, the Uchiha looks are not that common. True, there are many dark-haired people in the world, and many more with pale skin, but there were hints that if one looked hard enough, could immediately see which clan a person was from. The shape of the eyes, the slight build, the dry lips due to the extensive use of a _Katon_ jutsu—call it a stereotype, but once someone outside of the clan noticed these signs, their minds automatically categorized the person as an Uchiha. So even though Obito was a stranger, was probably not an Uchiha even though he instinctively looked one, Hikaku offered his hand in friendship to the younger man. He looked like family and while the Uchiha Clan could be considered cold at best and heartless at their worst, they didn't abandon family unless family abandoned them first. Hikaku couldn't, in good conscience, leave the young man by himself. Not with such noticeable injuries at least.

It was one of the best decisions Hikaku will ever make. By doing this, he gained a friend and an ally. Someone who would one day support him and support his family. Someone who he could depend on without worrying they'd die. Someone who took the time to listen and talk.

Someone who will change the world's history for the better.

—

A/N: Some things to take note of:

-Lavender supposedly grows best in places with lots of sun and good drainage, so Hinata which means "sunny place, in the sun" and Gesui which means "drainage" is a play on words of this. "Hinata Gesui" doesn't exist in either the manga or the anime; I made it up. Most of the places will be made up because technically, there's no map of what the world looked like during the Clan Wars, or if there is any, it's just easier for me to make up things.

-Hi no Kuni = Fire Country or Country of Fire. I like the romaji so that's why I use it, just like how the English translated manga doesn't try to directly translate every Japanese word they come across. Can you imagine if they tried to do that with the character names? Naruto would have been "fishcake" and Kakashi would have been "scarecrow".


End file.
